Push-pull handle latch



P 8, 1954 A. ERKKILA PUSH-PULL HANDLE LATCH 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 20, 1950 a Z RM Y m l w flJ .8 Mi wm n MW AM P 1954 A. ERKKILA PUSH-PULL HANDLE LATCH 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 20, 1950 -lNVENTO -.Hndrew E'k/cila ATTO R N EY Patented Sept. 28, 1954 UNETED STATES PATENT OFFICE PUSH-PULL HANDLE LATCH Application July 20, 1950, Serial No. 174,825

8 Claims.

This invention relates to a door latch and more particularly to a push-pull handle latching assembly. My invention is concerned with that class of door latches in which a bodily swinging handle supporting member serves as the latch carrying or operating medium for engaging and disengaging a latch portion thereof with a door frame strike whereby pushing on an angular extension of the handle attached to an outwardly swinging door will by the same motion disengage the latch portion and swing the door free of the strike, and, pulling the handle from the opposite side will swing the door in the direction of pulling and disengage the latch from the door strike.

Latches of the foregoing type known to me, including dogging means to restrain the handles from swinging, have been frequently mounted on doors having positive closure operators such as customary with screen doors having spring actuated door closers. Accidental setting of the looking or dogging device has resulted in damage to the latch and strike mechanism, to render the installation inoperative and has limited the use of materials which may be employed.

Accordingly, it is an object of my invention to provide a swinging handle type of latch which, by mere pushing and pulling of the angularly offset handle portion to each side of the door, the motion thereof actuates the latching portion, and

to include therewith dogging means acting on the swinging handle and manipulating means for such dogging means whereby resetting of the dogging member will be assured when accidental setting of the dogging member has been made.

Further objects of my invention reside in the provision of a spring-biased swinging handle push-pull latching device including an auxiliary spring-biased latch nose which may engage the door strike to provide for a wide tolerance of fit of the latch installation, and to minimize damage to the latch parts, including the dogging means for the latch, whereby a wide range of materials be employed in such latch installation and to resort to the movement of the auxiliary latch nose to reset the dogging means upon accident of setting.

My invention relates to the provision of an economical communicating door latch having the swinging handle feature and dogging feature in which the dogging element is reset to the unlocked position by engagement of a soft nose member and strike on the frame.

To attain these objects and such further objects as may appear herein or be hereinafter pointed out, I make reference to the accompanying drawing, forming a part hereof, in which- Figure 1 is a fragmentary side elevation of the inside face of a door showing my installation;

Figure 2 is a section taken on the line 22 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a section taken on the line 3-3 of Figure 1;

Figure 4 is a magnified fragmentary section taken on the line ii-4 of Figure 1;

Figure 5 is a section taken on the line 5--5 of Figure 3;

Figure 6 is a section taken on the line 6-6 of Figure 3;

Figure 7 is a fragmentary sectional view showing the door swung to an intermediate position.

Figure 8 is a fragmentary face view taken along the lines 8-8 of Figure 2.

Summarizing my invention, I provide a door latch applicable to screen doors or the like in which a push-pull swinging handle type of latch assembly is provided with dogging means to lock the handle assembly from the inside of the door, to prevent actuation from the outer face, and including resetting means to re-establish the dogging means to the neutral position, upon the dogging means being accidentally moved to the locked position, thereby to prevent accidental lock out, and consequent damage to the mechanism.

Making reference to the drawing, the latch in accordance with my invention is designed to be mounted on a door stile IE] to serve as a closure for the door frame II. An inside door frame escutcheon I2 is arranged to cover the inside door face over a boring I3. The escutcheon I2 is integrally formed with a pair of spaced ears [4 and 5, having transverse bearings or pivots l6 and H. The space between the ears It and I5 is aligned with the slot it in the inside face escutcheon to receive the swinging handle assembly it, having an outside branch 26 of the pull type contour and an inside branch 2| of the push type contour to each side of the main transverse branch 22. To one side of the midpoint of the branch 22 there is provided a lug 23 having a boring forming a bearing extending between the ears id and it? by the pivot pin 2 1 which also mounts the relatively heavy coiled spring 25 thereunder. The spring has its terminal ends 26 and 27 biased against the stop 23 and the slot 29 formed on the escutcheon and handle branch, respectively, and normally abutting the outer edge 38 against the wall of the slot it previously described.

The branch 29 projects through the outer face escutcheon 32, which has a slot 33 for the projecting handle portion. A recess 3L! slidably receives the dust plate 35 and has an orifice 36 through which the handle projects so that as it pivots from the limits of the walls 37 and 38, the handle carries with it the plate 35, to act as a closure in the slidable movement thereof.

The outer face escutcheon 32 has extension sleeves 39 integrally formed therewith to receive screws 40, whose head portions 4| are set into the counterboring of the escutcheon E2, to clamp the handle assembly to the door frame stile Ill in extending through the boring 13 thereof.

The centrally located branch 22 is formed with a slot 2-2 to outline divided sections 43 and M between which the latch is mounted and held pivotally at a point remote from the escutcheon. A pivot pin 45 permits swinging of the latch 4-5 from the front face 51 through the rear face 48 of the handle branch 22. The latch 45 is formed with a cutout it to receive the relatively soft spring 50 for biasing one end 5| against the wall 52 and the other end 53 is biased against the wall 5 of the slot Q2. The latch has an arcuate bearing face 55 whose extreme end 55 is of an eccentricity to abut the wall 5'! of the slot 32, to limit the outward projecting movement of the latch 45 by the spring 58. The bearing face 55 of the latch 45 is formed with a plurality of detent slots 58 arranged to be engaged by the strike 59, whose base 88 is anchored on the door frame adjacent the stop bead 5 i, the outwardly extending lobe 62 of the strike lying in the path of the latch 45.

The construction provides a relatively stiff spring for swinging the swing handle assembly and a soft spring for th auxiliary latch Which swings independently.

By the construction described it will be apparent that whenthe assembly is mounted upon the door frame, pulling of the handle 29 about the pivot pin M will serve to draw the door open by an initial tilting of the latch 45 away from the strike 59. Pushing the handle 2E, with the door in the open position as shown in Figure '7, will serve to cam the latch face 63 against the outer face of the strike 59 to the rear of the lobe 62, to compress the soft spring biased latch about the pivot 46 and then to tilt the handle against the spring pressure of the spring 25, about the pin 24. When the door abuts thestop the latch it has the leading edge 64 projected past the lobe 62 to bring the detent slots 58 into engagement with the lobe. closed against pressure on the door itself, the latch 45 being held against swing movement outwardly by the trailing edge 55 engaging the wall 5?. Pushing against the handle portion 2i will tilt the handle assembly, as previously described, and disengage the latch bearing face 55 from engagement with the lobe 62 of the strike as the leading edge 64 may clear the lobe in the swinging position.

To dog the swinging handle against movement from the outside, there is provided a dogging plate 65 which has an extension 66 to maintain the plate slidable in the slot 61. The dogging plate 55 has a raised portion 68 providing a stop 69 for engagement of the rear face Ill of the swinging handle and an abutment H to engage the wall l2 of the escutcheon aperture [8. The dogging plate 85 has a push button extension in the form of the upstanding web is which projects through the slot 18 and is guided longitudinally within the slot extension M.

The dogging plate is encased within the slot 5'? by the retainer plate 15 fitting within the c0unter-sunk portion it. Peened or upset portions l1 cut into the rim of the metal retain the plate The door is then held I on one of said escutcheons for said h 15 in position. The plate 15 has side branches l3 and 19 spaced from each other to form a clearance to permit depression of the dogging plate 65 therebetween.

A central spring tongue 86 has its curved end guided within the longitudinal slot 84', on the rear face of the plate, to permit depression of the dogging plate 65 to receive the protuberance 68. Normally, the dogging plate is pressed inwardly against the resilient action of the tongue 88 to depress the plate rearwardly, to retain the protuberance 68 spaced between the escutcheon and the spring finger until the rearmost end 8! is in contact with the wall 82. In this position the handle may swing freely to retract the latch t5 by the push and pull action from opposite sides of the outer face or inner face of the door. To dog the swinging handle from the inside, the occupant slides the locking plate to the position shown in Figure 4, to the full limit thereof, where the end 69 abuts the handle '56, in which position the spring finger so then projects the enlargement 68 to abut the rear portions l: on the wall 12 of the escutcheon against each other. A positive dogging of the swinging handle is thereby obtained.

In accordance with one phase of my invention, should it be experienced that the dogging plate 65 has been pushed into dogging position, with the door in the open position, accidental closing of the door would cause the occupant to be locked out or cause damage to the latch. Accordingly, the extended button 13 is provided with a camming edge 83 lying in the path of the trailing edge 56 of the latch. Should the dogging plate 65 be moved to the dogging position when the door is in the open position as shown in Figure 7, the action of closing the door will drive the latch 45 against the strike 59 along the camming face 63, and in turn project the trailing edge 56 against the camming face 83 of the dogging plate. This action depresses the dogging plate against the spring pressure of the finger 8t well as to slide the plate to the position where it is fully nested within the slot ti. The dogging member is thereby reset to the inoperative position upon slamming of the door to prevent dam age and to prevent lockout engagement.

It will thus be observed that I have provided a push-pull or swinging handle type of latch assembly which is easy to operate, especially on spring actuated doors, such as screen doors, in cluding dogging means for the latch operating mechanism, as well as resetting of the dogging means to prevent accidental looking out of the occupant and breakage of the lock parts.

Having thus described my invention and illustrated its use, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a door latch or the like comprisin porting escutcheons having mounted tween a bodily swinging handle member angularly directed extensions to each side thflleOf for pivoting the handle by push-pull ins-a1 to opposite sides of the door and includin" a bearing ber, spring biasing means for res swinging movement of said handle 1 including a latch on said handle mernb projected with relation to said member on pivot means of said handle, said latch being independently retractable with respect to said handle member, dogging means for said handle member, the combination therewith of dog tripping means carried by one of said escutcheons, said tripping means being mounted in the path of movement of said latch, and means on said latch acting upon said tripping means in response to said independent retraction of said latch for operating said dog tripping means to release said handle member for swinging movement.

2. In a door latch or the like comprising a bodily swinging handle member mounted on escutcheons to be positioned to opposite faces of the door, spring biasing means for said handle, a latch carried by the handle member pivoted for independent movement with respect to said handle member, dogging means for said handle member on an escutcheon, the combination therewith of tripping means for said dogging means, and means on said latch acting upon said tripping means in response to said independent movement of said latch for operating said tripping means to release said handle member for swinging movement.

3. In a door latch or the like comprising the bodily swinging handle member carried between escutcheons and having latch means actuated by said swinging handle for engagement with the strike carried by the door frame and including spring biasing means for swinging said handle against an abutment as a limiting stop, a latch pivotally mounted on said handle for movement independently of said handle member, said latch having a camming face and a strike plate engaging edge thereon, a dogging member movably mounted on one of said escutcheons into the path of swinging of said handle to restrain the swinging movement thereof with respect to said escutcheons, the combination therewith of a cam follower means on said dogging member, said latch camming face acting upon said cam follower means in response to said independent movement of said latch to effect a resetting of said dogging member to permit swinging movement of said handle member.

4. In a door latch or the like comprising a bodily swinging handle with portions projecting on opposite faces of the door escutcheons for mounting the handle, a latch actuated by said handle member to swing the same to and from engagement with the door strike, a dogging member to dog the swinging movement of the handle slidably mounted on an escutcheon, the combination wherein said dogging member has an extension movable in the path of the handle and another extension portion in the path of movement of said latch and means on said latch acting upon said last named extension in response to independent movement of said latch to reset said do ging member to permit swinging of the handle member.

5. In a door latch or the like comprising a bodily swinging handle arranged to pass through an opening in the door, an escutcheon for mounting the handle, said handle having angular ofiset extensions for push-pull swinging of the handle member on said escutcheon, spring biasing means for said handle member, a latch pivotally mounted on and actuated by said handle member for engaging the door strike and wherein said latch member is pivoted for movement in relation to said handle member, and a slidable dogging member carried in an opening in the escutcheon to slide a projecting portion in the path of movement of said handle by abutting engagement of said handle and a wall of said opening, the combination therewith of an extension on said dog- 6 ging member, said extension having a camming portion positionable in the path of the latch member, and means on said latch acting upon said camming portion in response to said pivotal movement of said latch relative to said handle to slide said dogging member into a released position to permit free swinging of the handle.

6. In a door latch comprising a bodily swinging handle member mounted upon an escutcheon, said handle having angular portions for pushpull action to pivot the handle member into and out of latching engagement and including a dogging member comprising a slide having guiding means on the escutcheon, said dog having a portion engaging opposed means on said escutcheon and handle to dog said handle member and including spring biasing means .to hold said dogging member in dogging position, the combination therewith of dog tripping means, said dog tripping means comprising a swingable latch mounted on said handle member and independently swinging with respect to said handle member, means on said dog positioned to cooperate with said latch, and means on said latch acting upon said cooperating means on said dog in response to said independent swinging of said latch to reset said dog to permit free swinging movement of the handle member.

'7. In a door latch or the like comprising a bodily swinging handle member arranged to pass through a door with extensions to either side of said door for push-pull latching and unlatching movement, and having an independently movable latch and a dogging member engaging said handle member, the combination therewith of dog tripping means comprising a camming portion on said latch and a cam follower on said dog, said camming portion acting on said cam follower in response to independent movement of said latch for camming said dogging member into released position to permit swinging movement of said handle.

8. In a door latch or the like comprising a bodily swinging handle member having portions arranged to pass through the door and including escutcheons on opposite faces of the door, a bearing on one of said escutcheons to support said swinging member, said handle having an independently depressible latch swingably mounted thereon, said latch having a camming surface on the leading edge thereof and a strike engaging surface on the trailing edge thereof, one of said escutcheons carrying a dogging member including a protuberance providing a stop for engaging the rear face of the handle and providing an abutment to engage a portion of the escutcheon providing a guide for sliding movement of said dogging means, spring means yieldably to hold said stop in the abutting osition, the combination therewith of an extension on said protuberance, said extension lying in the path of swing of said latch member providing a surface engageable by said camming surface upon independent swinging movement of said latch member to trip said dogging member and to reset the same to a position permitting swinging of said handle member.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number 

